Genesis
by Sokkaweekly
Summary: An unexpected development throws Azula's life into chaos. Sokkla oneshot.


It had started with the sickness. Princess Azula of the Fire Nation was many things, but prone to illness wasn't one of them. She kept herself in prime condition and was as hale and hearty as any young woman could hope to be.

At first, it had been disregarded. Food poisoning or an off day. Everyone got sick eventually, it was a fact of life.

When it didn't abate, then concerns were raised. The many trials and tribulations she'd received, although not recent, weren't far enough in the past that they were beyond consideration. Perhaps her body had finally caught up to the trauma?

Either way, it had meant that a healer had to be called in. Understandably, Azula had been wary. Her past experiences with waterbending had hardly been conducive to a healing environment. But after enough prodding, she'd consented to an examination.

The results had been world-shattering. She, sister to the Fire Lord, wielder of the Blue Flame and descendant of Avatar Roku himself, was pregnant.

If things had gone a different route, perhaps this may have happened anyway. Ozai would have expected her to birth an heir eventually. But he no longer mattered. It was just her and her lover.

It was yet another of the universe's many little jokes aimed at the two of them. As though the adversity they'd faced, together and alone, hadn't been enough. Sometimes it seemed as if things were going to go wrong their entire lives.

The mental beration gave way to bigger, meaner thoughts. Doubt settled in like a choking fog, cutting deep into her soul. How could she possibly deal with such an enormous responsibility?

Even now, with the war years past and all her crimes pardoned, she was hardly trusted enough with a knife and fork at dinnertime.

Well, there was nothing to be done yet. All she could do now was inform the father.

* * *

Sokka was sat quite comfortably in a seat on the dock, fishing rod in one hand and mug of ale in the other. It felt a bit wrong to be relaxing at such a time, with his girlfriend laid up in a healing hut, but it had been made very clear that his presence was unnecessary.

Besides, he supposed, it would probably turn out to be something minor, like the flu. As much as she liked to think otherwise, Azula wasn't superhuman. A spate of nausea would humble her, a good thing in his book.

Nonchalantly drinking the rest of his ale, he was so focused looking out across the water that he failed to notice the approaching woman.

Unfortunately, by that time she reached him, he had hooked a fish and was reeling it in. This particular fish was a tough old troutcarp who refused to be pulled in by some moron with a stick on a string.

Azula, for her part, had - along the way to see him - unfortunately come to the conclusion (as was often the case by everyone who'd ever met him) that it was mainly Sokka's fault.

This had lead to her level of ire rising, and her ability to tolerate his shenanigans (usually quite low as it was) had plummeted dramatically. As Sokka wrestled with his prize, she grew tired of waiting and casually burned the end of his fishing pole.

This had the effect of severing the connection between the wood and string, thus enabling the fish to speed off and Sokka, no longer having the force of gravity pulling him one way and the fish in another, followed the only path that still had a connection to him - namely, the ground.

In an usual display of generosity, he did not immediately respond with a barrage of insults regarding the parentage and intelligence of whoever was responsible for his tumble (which would have been reasonable and, more to the point, somewhat true considering who Azula had been born from - although her mental faculties were unassailable.)

Instead he carefully picked himself up and hoped there would be no follow-up attacks. The look on his beloved paramour's face told him she was seriously considering it.

Swallowing nervously, he wisely bit back his first instinct - a joke - and decided that the role of happy boyfriend was needed here in spades.

"So, all clear, then? Haha…" The nervous chuckle escaped him before he could claw it back into his throat.

Azula's golden eyes narrowed even further. "No, Sokka. We are not 'all clear.' We could not possibly be further from 'all clear'."

Well that was informative, Sokka thought. Not to mention rather ominous. Azula didn't look like she was going to die, but it was better to make sure.

"So, what is it then? You're not going to… y'know… go the way of the airbenders, are you?"

Going the way of the airbenders, as the term implied, meant a sudden and permanent end. It was a phrase that was guaranteed to upset Aang and therefore enrage Katara, and was in rather poor taste (particularly considering who he was directing it at) beside, but some habits die hard.

Azula sighed, the anger draining out of her suddenly. "No. I am not going to die. Quite the opposite, in fact. Congratulations."

"On what?"

"On becoming a father."

Sokka heard the words. They definitely entered through his ears and into his brain. But that was the end of it for quite some time.

Eventually Azula grew slightly concerned at the utter frozenness of her boyfriend. She'd seen more movement in people completely paralysed by Ty Lee.

Finally the synapses sparked back into life, and Sokka snapped out of his sudden immobility. Her voice ran over and over inside his head until it was imprinted into the very tissue of his brain.

"Are…" He swallowed. "Are you sure?"

Azula chuckled dryly. "I'm not sure of anything. But the healer is, and she'd know."

Sokka stared in disbelief. "But how?!" He cried.

Azula's gaze was dispassionate. "How? I know you know how babies are made."

An unamused frown crawled onto Sokka's face. "I mean, weren't you, you know, taking anything? To prevent this sort of thing."

"Of course I was. You think I wanted to be forced to bear your spawn?" The snort of derision that followed stung Sokka a bit.

"Hey, it's yours too, you know. And if you were, then how come you're going to have a kid? Did you forget?"

The suggestion that she was capable of forgetting anything did not sit well with Azula.

"No. I suppose it just… didn't work. But that's not important. What matters now is what we're going to do now."

Sokka's face wrinkled in confusion. "Do? What do you mean?"

Azula rolled her eyes. "I mean, my pea-brained lover, what are we going to do about this thing growing inside me."

This did not impart any more information to Sokka, but he gamely tried anyway. "Well, we wait for it to be born and then we take care of it until it's an adult."

"There is another option. I'm sure one of your waterbending friends knows a way to… put a stop to it before it becomes an issue." Azula's voice was devoid of all emotion.

Put a stop to it? She couldn't possibly mean what Sokka thought she meant. He'd known her for many years, seen her do some terrible things, but even in the height of her depravity Sokka wouldn't have thought she'd be capable of such a thing.

His horror and disgust must have shown on his face, because the soulless mask on hers fractured away.

"I'm not fit to raise a child, Sokka. You know me, what I've done. What baby wants that kind of legacy behind them?"

Reaching out, Sokka grasped her by the arm. "Yes, you've done some heinous acts. But that's the past, Azula. You've moved beyond it. You're not who you used to be."

Azula wasn't swayed. "My own mother hated me. She still can hardly look at me now. And my father, he was a madman who nearly destroyed the world. What if I turn out to be just like them? What if this baby hates me?"

Pulling her to his chest, Sokka pressed a kiss to her brow. "You're your own woman, Azula. Though you may have been born and shaped by your parents, you're not them. You've become a beautiful, intelligent, awe-inspiring woman."

Sokka considered for a moment. "And what's more, you're not alone. You've got me. We'll raise this kid, and more, together. They won't grow up like we did, broken and afraid. They'll be better."

Azula peered up at him, before wiping a tear from his blue eye. She smiled softly and kissed his lips.

"And hey, Katara always said she'd have a baby first. Guess I win."

Shaking her head, Azula detached from her boyfriend. "The only achievement you'll ever get, you must be so proud."

"Is that so? Let's go tell the others the news, and then I'll show you some of my other 'achievements'." Sokka grinned.

Though the future is never certain, one thing was - the expecting parents would face and overcome whatever it threw at them - together.


End file.
